The second thing I had intended to do before going to the exercise area was getting something to eat. I was starving, kind of, because for some reason despite having ran for over eight hours (off the back of a long day) I didn't feel nearly as hungry as I should have, nor as fatigued. The hunger was still there however, gnawing at my attention. In a way I wanted to eat because I just wanted the sensation of eating, of being full, and in the same way I wanted also to enjoy a good night's sleep (as good as I could get given how uncomfortable the mattress and pillow was).

Tiffany came with me to the cafeteria. Mikayla joined us because she wanted to spend more time hanging out with Tiffany; and this also meant Blain joined our group because he was friends with Mikayla (maybe there was something more going on between them, I hadn't seen them around each other enough to discern that yet).

There was a wait for food this time since the breakfast rush was over and it wasn't quite time for lunch yet; I spotted Daniel amongst the teenagers busily working to get lunch made for everyone. I had taken a seat at a table near where we would queue up; as soon as lunch was ready I planned to make a beeline to the start of the queue. Whilst I sat pondering what I might get to eat for lunch Tiffany, Mikayla, and Blain also took seats around the table; Tiffany to my left, Mikayla left of Tiffany, and Blain sat across from me.

Say something, I thought, now's a good chance to get to know them better.

But I didn't. I couldn't figure out what would be a good thing to bring up. Was it worth talking about Mike's announcement? Would the others want to talk about it or would they prefer to talk about trivial things? Just say something, my brain demanded, if you don't they'll think you don't like them or something. You don't want to come across as rude, do you?

"Man," I said, almost to myself but just loud enough for the others to hear, "I sort of miss daylight already."

The fluorescent lights were stark and bright and not at all inviting to sit in. Whilst not grimy or drab, the cafeteria, much like the rest of the third floor, was bare bones in its design.

"Thanks for the reminder, lol," said Mikayla, dismissively.

"Yeah," said Tiffany, "I'm getting sick of these stupid lights."

I could tell Tiffany was only complaining to help me save face a bit.

Blain was sitting back in his seat. His gaze slowly shifted to me.

"Yo," he said.

"H-hey," I said, timidly.

Blain shifted round in his seat and sat forward. Although we were the same age he had the body of a full grown man; especially compared to me.

"I heard you ran for eight hours last night," he said, "Is that true?"

I nodded, "Yeah," I said, "I figured out a way to keep going for a long time."

"How?" said Blain.

I explained in detail how I had willed myself to be stronger, if only a little bit, and how it had made me feel coiled up like a spring ready to go. Blain listened intently.

"The problem was," I said, "I really didn't want to stop when Tiffany asked me to stop. I could have kept going. It was weird, like time was moving faster or something."

"I think I did something like that before," said Blain, "When I was at Lintern, I tapped into this feeling, like my whole body got tight, coiled up, like you said. Made the whole thing easy."

"Could you show me how to do it?" said Mikayla.

I looked at her as if she had suddenly grown a second head. I hadn't expected her to talk to me, not with how she gave Blain and Tiffany the majority of her attention.

"Sure," I said.

"I got the sunburnt treatment last time," said Mikayla, "I'm like, so over that."

Can't Blain show you? I thought. But after thinking about it, it seemed as if Blain had been tapping into the same power I had but in an intuitive, unintentional way.

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"So," I said, looking to Blain, "You've not intentionally coiled have you?"

"Nah," he said, "I want to try it out. How about you show me after lunch?"

"Okay," I said, "No problem."

"Me too," said Mikayla.

I nodded and forced a friendly smile.

"I'll tag along," said Tiffany.

She checked her Meter. It was still green. I could see a momentary dread in her eyes. She really didn't want it to turn orange any time soon, though it inevitably would.

I idly ran my tongue along my upper gum. The cut that Tommy had punched there before was still there, still sore, but not so bad as it had been. I'd almost forgotten about it. Part of me even assumed it might have healed completely after the last eight hours, given how my body had some potential healing factor. But now I wasn't so sure. Maybe if I willed it to close up faster it might?

"Have you seen what some of the teenagers can do here?" said Mikayla.

She was speaking to all of us.

"You mean, like, powers and stuff?" I said.

"Yeah," she said, "You won't believe it but I saw a girl change her hair color from blonde to ginger; not just a little bit, but like real ginger hair."

"You know George?" said Blain, "In our block? He can grow his finger nails on command. It's really freaked, bruv."

"Does he cut them?" I said. I hadn't noticed George's nails being particularly long.

Blain made an 'I guess' gesture and sat back in his seat.

I told the others about Jay and Amar and what they had shown me. Blain nodded, as if agreeing with himself.

"What?" said Tiffany.

She sat forward and fixed her attention on Blain (even more than she already was, that is).

"We're getting super powers," said Blain, "Not just getting stronger, but weird stuff like changing our bodies too. If this is just the start then just imagine what's coming in the future."

"As far as I know the facility knows about these powers," I said, "They must do. But if that's the case why aren't they making a bigger deal about it?"

"Maybe they've known for a long time, init?" said Tiffany, "Like, maybe even before this Pied Piper's Return thing."

"How?" said Mikayla, "I never saw anything on the news, like, about people with weird powers. Nothing on social media either."

"It's not like they're shooting lasers from their eyes," said Blain, "It's just growing nails and changing hair colour. Ain't no big thing."

"It's big," I said, "Really big, actually. It shouldn't be possible."

"You know what I don't get," said Blain, "How is this-"

He held up his Meter device which showed a steady green light.

"-connected with George being able to grow his fingernails out?"

"It's energy," I said, "The Pied Piper scientists figured out something to detect that we have power building up inside of ourselves; that if we don't exert ourselves we'll blow up. What if there are other ways to convert that energy? Instead of running laps for eight hours maybe that could be avoided altogether if I could change the colour of my eyes like Amar can."

"This is booky," said Mikayla, pronouncing the word as boo-key, "My grandma warned me about messing around with booky stuff; it's of the devil. What if all of this has some devilish voodoo behind it?"

I narrowed my eyes.

"Maybe we should just stick to the science of it?" I said.

Mikayla did not look impressed with what I just said.

"Bruv," she said, "What you're saying ain't much different to what I'm saying; black magic voodoo does this kind of thing; it's called a…a…"

She struggled to find the right word.

"Glamour?" I said.

"Yeah!" said Mikayla, snapping her fingers in agreement excitedly, "That's it! A glamour! Dark magic that, like, booky people use to make themselves look different to other people."

I didn't believe in magic, or anything like that; but I did know tabletop games, and the idea of 'glamours', being able to change minor details of one's appearance using magic, was something I was vaguely aware of. But it was all just fictional game stuff, not something from the real world.

"It's not an illusion, though," I said, "Jay put his hand into a warm cup of water and made it nearly ice cold."

"Are you sure you didn't just think, like, that it was cold?" said Mikayla.

"I guess I wouldn't know the difference if it was an illusion," I said.

"Running for eight hours straight and feeling fine after ain't an illusion," said Blain, "And I've seen George put away his nail clippings; it ain't an illusion. Trust."

"Maybe we should try and find our own powers, init?" said Tiffany, "Then we'd know for sure."

"Nah," said Mikayla, "I'm staying away from this booky thing until I know it ain't voodoo."

"Does that mean you don't want me to show you how to coil?" I said.

"Nah," she said, "You can show me that, but I ain't doing glamours. My gradma'd throw her slipper at me, you get me, lol?"

We all chuckled at this.

"She got good aim?" said Blain, smiling.

"She's fierce!" said Mikayla, "She can throw her slippers round corners like a boomarang, ting! Pah!"

Blain and Tiffany erupted into laughter at this; I did too, though not quite as much. A sudden ding sounded across the cafeteria. It was time to queue up for lunch.